Sometimes during an electronic communication, such as an instant messaging or email conversation, a section of text or media in the communication may be inappropriate for certain audiences. If the recipient or sender wishes to alert the other party to the communication of, or otherwise hide the content, there are presently no effective means for accomplishing this task. As a result, a user is typically resigned to closing a chat window or message thread, and/or deleting the history of the communication including the potentially inappropriate subject matter.
Some known methods for addressing sensitive information relate to allowing a user to unobscure selected pages of an online document upon receipt of authentication information, but do not relate to obscuring an entire or part of a message in a collaborative communication, such as an instant message, or a message sent via, for example, a smartphone, using short message service (SMS) or multimedia messaging service (MMS). Other known methods relate to encryption and decryption, where users can encrypt messages, and a receiver identified as an authorized user can decrypt and read the messages.
None of the known methods for obfuscating electronic content provide a temporary obfuscating method for collaborative communications, which can inform recipients of the sensitivity of the content, while still allowing the recipients to easily lock, unlock and view the sensitive content.